Advertising with Snapchat?

    

    As a part of the younger generation, I frequent Snapchat. It’s a part of my everyday life. I am without a doubt more active on Snapchat than I am on any other social media platform such as Instagram or X (formerly known as Twitter). I probably know the app inside and out. But for some reason, when I think about Snapchat, I don’t think about advertisements or shopping for things like I do when I think about other platforms. However, in recent years, Snapchat has become the place for businesses to run their advertisements and many people don’t even know. 

Here’s how they did it:  

Shows: 

    You know those random stories that pop up on your discovery page? They always have some sort of cliffhanger or dramatic title or even feature a popular artist or athlete. Yeah, those are actually paid advertisements from companies. Snapchat offers two kinds of shows: Snap Originals, which are basically mini-documentaries or TV shows split up into multiple stories or “episodes” and Syndicated Shows which contain content from other platforms made specifically for a short amount of air time. Syndicated Shows don’t follow a storyline or necessarily connect like Snap Originals do. These stories have been placed on the discovery page in order to promote a brand, influencer or event and many people don’t realize that. This was a sneaky but effective way Snapchat used its platform to help with advertising. 

Visual Search: 

    I honestly didn’t even know this was a thing until I read about it. I always knew you could look up a song by holding down the camera and “scanning” the environment, but I didn't know that it also searched for things like clothes too. By pointing the camera towards a product or its barcode, you can pull it up on Amazon and buy it. How genius is that? This feature then brings in revenue for not only Snapchat but Amazon, as well making this possibly one of the best partnerships to exist. 

My AI: 

    Finally, we have My AI, an AI-powered chatbox that allows users to ask questions and learn more about various topics. Personally, this was a no-go for me as a Snapchat user. If you remember the day everyone's AIs posted weird pictures or videos on their stories, you know what I mean. From a user standpoint, it’s weird and not my favorite but from a business standpoint, I can kind of see what they were trying to do. Like other technologies, AI was invented to help make our lives easier and so Snapchat capitalized on that. The My AI feature allows users to ask questions, gives recommendations from Snap Maps and can even suggest relevant lenses. This was a bold strategy from Snapchat that is currently paying off. 

    Whether users realize it or not, Snapchat has become one of the biggest platforms when it comes to advertising. Through Shows, Visual Searches or even AI, Snapchat continues to dominate the advertising world in some of the most hidden ways.